Why Your Competitor Ranks Above You in Google Maps

How Google decides the order in Maps

Google is upfront about this. Local ranking depends on three factors: relevance, distance, and prominence. Relevance is how well your profile matches what someone typed. Distance is how far you are from the searcher. Prominence is how well known your business is, online and offline.

There's no secret trick and no paid shortcut. Google states directly that you can't buy or request a better position. Whoever promises you a top-three spot is selling something they can't deliver.

The good news is in how those three factors split. Two of them are mostly in your hands.

Relevance: tell Google exactly what you do

Search your own trade in your own neighborhood and open your competitor's profile. Chances are it says more than yours does: a complete category, services spelled out, hours listed for every day, photos of the actual work. Google says directly that complete information helps match your profile to searches.

This is the part you can fix yourself on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. Go through your whole profile: primary category, additional categories, services, description, hours, photos. The Google Business Profile guide walks through it setting by setting.

• Does your primary category match your trade exactly, or is it something generic?
• Are all your services listed, even the small ones?
• Are your hours current, including holidays?
• Are the photos recent, or just that one from five years ago?

Distance: you can't change this, and that's fine

If someone is standing on the Grote Markt in Haarlem and searches for a barber, the barber around the corner almost always beats the barber in Schalkwijk. That's how it should work. Google uses the searcher's location and shows what's nearby.

If your competitor is literally closer to the people searching, you lose some of those searches. That's it. Moving your business for a Maps ranking makes no sense, and listing a fake address breaks Google's rules and can get your profile taken down.

What you can do: make sure you're the strongest option within your own radius. Someone searching 800 meters away should see you, not the competitor three kilometers out. That's where the other two factors come in.

Prominence: reviews, your website, and how often you're mentioned

Prominence is the vaguest of the three, but Google names what falls under it: how well known your business is, your review count and average rating, and links to your website from other sites.

Reviews are usually the deciding factor here. Do the math: if your competitor has 87 reviews and you have 12, Google has a reason to rank them above you. Asking for a review after a job well done feels awkward the first three times and then it's just a habit. Responding to reviews counts too, so do that, including the bad ones. For how to handle this without it becoming a full-time job, see managing reviews across multiple platforms.

Your website counts too. A site that plainly states your services and location gives Google more to work with than a Facebook page from 2019.

The honest diagnosis: where is your competitor winning?

Before you fix anything, figure out where the gap actually is. It takes about fifteen minutes and a cup of coffee. Open your profile and your competitor's side by side and compare.

• How many reviews do they have versus you, and when was the most recent one?
• Which fields have they filled in that you've left blank?
• How many photos do they have, how recent, and are they real photos of the work?
• Do they have a website, and does it clearly say what they do and where?
• Are they closer to the center, or closer to the neighborhood where the customers actually are?

What doesn't work (and what will cost you money)

There are companies out there promising you'll be ranked number one in Google Maps within a month. Nobody can promise that, because nobody controls the ranking except Google, and Google itself says positions aren't for sale.

Tricks like stuffing your business name with keywords or creating fake profiles violate the guidelines and can get your profile suspended or removed. Then you're nowhere at all, which is considerably worse than sitting in fourth place.

One more thing worth knowing: collecting reviews and keeping your profile current is maintenance, like washing your windows. Your competitor keeps collecting reviews too, so the work continues after the first month.

A realistic plan for the next month

You don't have to do all of this at once. This order works, from fastest to slowest payoff.

• Week 1: complete your profile. Categories, services, hours, ten recent photos.
• Week 2: personally ask your last five happy customers for a review, by text or in person.
• Week 3: reply to every review currently on your profile, including the old ones.
• Week 4: check your website. Is your location listed, are your services listed, does your phone number match your profile?
• After that: close out every finished job with a review request. That's the system.